With the release of the new psychological horror Goodnight Mommy on Prime Video, comes a lot of questions from viewers who haven’t seen the original movie on which this film is based. Chief among them is exactly what happened just before the credits rolled, as twist upon twist was unleashed, leaving the audience questioning everything they thought they knew about the story. Naomi Watts stars as a mother to two twins (Nicholas Crovetti, and Cameron Crovetti), but with her behavior growing increasingly unusual, they begin to suspect the woman underneath her cosmetic surgery gauze may not be their parent at all. Here, we delve into the Goodnight Mommy ending and give the answers to some of the movie’s most pressing questions.
There will, of course, be spoilers…
What happens in the Goodnight Mommy ending?
After observing some odd and at times, outright cruel antics by their mom, twins Elias and Lukas decide it’s time to take control. Trying and failing to escape their home, they are brought right back by local authorities, but that doesn’t stop them from digging for the truth. Whilst their mother sleeps, the boys use duct tape to tie all of her limbs to the bed. Though she tries to escape, she cannot find the strength to break free, and the twins demand answers from her. Elias, though, is worried that he and his brother may have gotten the wrong end of the stick.
Fighting against his twin and the balance of his own moral compass, Elias eventually discovers that Lukas had lied to him about their mother wearing contacts to change the color of her eyes. Convinced by this revelation that she is really the woman she claims to be, he frees her from her bed, and the two embrace. That’s not the end of their story, however. Elias and Lukas’ mom has something she wants to share that changes everything. She tells Elias that she has something to show him, because it’s time for him to stop living in fantasy.
Elias reluctantly follows his mother to the barn. There, they go up to the higher floor and she asks him to look at the blood-splattered wall. It is at this point that the audience learns Lukas was accidentally killed by Elias, when the boys were playing with a gun they didn’t know had been loaded. Lukas was shot, and died. Elias refuses to accept this as the truth, despite the bullet hole in the wood, and before his mom can fully get through to him, he shoves her, sending her flying through the wooden barrier on the upper level and down to the barn floor below. The lamp she was holding smashes, with the flame inside setting the barn alight. Though Elias is able to flee before the whole thing comes tumbling down, his mother is left inside, consumed by the fire.
Why did Elias think Lukas was still alive?
In Goodnight Mommy, Elias is suffering from a condition called Capgras delusion, where one twin is incapable of accepting the demise of their sibling. He had been seeing hallucinations of Lukas since his death, and while his mother had been trying to ease him back into a normal way of life, the dissociative identity disorder proved to be too much. This also explains why, as a parent, the twins’ mother had changed so much.
Goodnight Mommy (2022) is available to stream now, exclusively on Amazon Prime Video.
